Dyersburg High School's online newspaper

Signs like this one are a common sight in the weeks leading up to the homecoming dance.

Students have resorted to using oversized gestures instead of asking with words.

Football homecoming is less than three weeks away at Dyersburg High School, which means the homecoming dance is just around the corner. Students are scrambling to secure their dates before it is too late. Clever rhymes, embellished posters and excessive Instagram posts have been a common sight over the past several weeks.

Many parents, and even some students feel that these homecoming “proposals” are too excessive. They wonder why people are making such a big spectacle over such a simple question.

So why have students taken the simple question of “Will you go to the dance with me?” and stretched it into something way more complicated than necessary? Is it because they want to make a kind gesture? Or is it because they fear being rejected?

In my opinion, teenagers need to stop resorting to oversized gestures just to secure a date to a dance. There is nothing wrong with asking the simple eight word question of “Will you go to the dance with me?”. It takes courage for a someone to ask “Will you go to homecoming with me?”. It does not take much courage to hide behind a poster and make the other person feel obligated to say yes.

Getting asked to a dance with a poster can be a good thing. Many teenagers enjoy being able to take a picture with their date and the poster and later post the photo on social media. It is nice to see that your date put thought, time and effort into asking you.

However, there are several disadvantages to asking or being asked with a big gesture. The one asking has to search for a clever and unique way to ask that has not yet been used by their peers. They also have to find the right time and place to ask.

Being asked with a poster or another big gesture has many disadvantages. When someone asks you with a poster, I feel like you cannot say no because you notice the time and effort that someone put into asking you. When someone shows up and asks you with a big sign, it creates a lot of attention that I usually do not enjoy. In my few experiences of being asked by a poster, I wish that my date had asked me with words.

“Most people just want to get asked to homecoming. They don’t care about a poster. A simple question is enough to make a person happy,” sophomore Olivia Keiser said.